Plans unveiled for 52 affordable new flats for Glasgow community

Work has started on building 52 new affordable homes for rent as part of a regeneration project in the west of Glasgow.

Cube Housing Association, part of Wheatley Group, is behind the £5.3 million development in Kelvindale which will consist of three modern, energy-efficient blocks of flats.

One of the blocks will be designed to provide 34 ‘amenity’ flats for older people. Amenity housing provides residents with communal areas where they can socialise and has special features such as wet floor showers and more accessible electric sockets.

The two other blocks at Kelvindale Place will have a mix of flats with one to three bedrooms ­– with six ground-floor flats designed for wheelchair users. All the homes will be for social rent.

The new homes at Kelvindale will be the seventh new-build project to be taken forward by Cube since it joined Wheatley Group in 2012. It is being part-financed by grant support from Glasgow City Council and with investment from the £300m bond raised by Wheatley on the capital markets in late 2014.

Cube chair Liz Ruine said: “One of our top priorities at Cube and across Wheatley Group is to increase the supply of affordable housing and give people a bigger choice of homes which suit their needs. This development will offer older people in the area the chance of getting amenity housing with a bit of extra support as well as some quality affordable flats for single people and families.”

The old flats on the site were owned by GHA, also part of Wheatley Group, but latterly became unpopular and expensive to maintain. All the former residents moved to other homes – with some of them choosing new-build homes in nearby Maryhill – and the tenements were demolished.

The Kelvindale site is the fourth phase of work at the Maryhill Transformational Regeneration Area (TRA), one of eight TRAs in the city earmarked as a priority for large-scale regeneration by Transforming Communities: Glasgow (TC:G), a partnership between Glasgow City Council, Scottish Government and GHA.

It follows earlier phases by Maryhill Housing Association and Bigg Regeneration Ltd bringing the total investment in the TRA so far to £20.4m.

The flats are being built by contractor Cruden Building and Renewals with the first homes expected to be ready in 2017.

TC:G chair, Councillor George Redmond, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to see work beginning on these homes in Kelvindale. The range of homes on offer here is a perfect example of what the council and our partners are trying to achieve in Glasgow, by making different house and flat types available to individuals and families who will need different types of homes at different stages of their lives. What they need most of all are high-quality homes, and that is very much what they will get here. I look forward to the completion of these homes.”